The exhibit Sense of Absense is an expression of irony. Jihye Park deliberately makes absent the actual event by showing only the pre and post-event situations. In general, the moment when an event actually occurs is generally never witnessed, hidden in the blind spot of reality. For example the video of the plane crashing into the World Trade Center is one that was viewed by most people in the world but to actually witness the exact moment of collision with eyes wide open is not easy. An event becomes redefined through the description and interpretation of what goes on before and after the moment of occurrence, much like how history is redefined in this manner. An undefined feeling of anxiousness predominates Sense of Absense exhibit throughout, springing either from the underlying concealed violence or resulting from the after-state of an occurred violence.

In Park’s Labyrinthos (2013), a relationship is established by the positioning of the two video displays. On the vertical screen panel covering a side of the exhibit space, a man playing a pipe is shown. A video with three girls is projected on an entire wall just far enough from the panel. The man donning Middle-Eastern attire seductively plays the pipe looking forward. Viewers meet his gaze while getting glimpses of the movements of the three girls displayed behind the man on the panel. The three girls all dressed in white move in unexplainable ways exchanging glances at each other. The physical space and distance between the girls and the man are filled with sound and music that become another added dimension to the multi-dimensional installation. The innocent movements of the three girls with their naïve gazes and their innocuous white dresses, positioned behind the man making seductive gestures creates an odd sense of anxiety. The space between the two videos and screens seem to suggest the relationship of power between the two subjects (adult-child/desirer-object of desire). The sound/music flowing about the exhibit resembling the Siren’s whistle or Mozart’s Magic Flute (Die Zauberflote) raises the tension level even higher.

abstracts from 'The Violence of the Familiar'
Jung, Hyun, Art Critic

*image (left)
© Ji Hye Park
courtesy of the artist and Songeun Artcube